How do I programmatically remove a known password from an Access DB?

Question

For reasons beyond my control, I have to deal with a new Access MDB file that is downloaded, decrypted, and unzipped every month by an automated process I wrote. Despite the

Answer 1

In case anyone has to do something similar, here's what I wound up doing:

using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;

namespace FTPAutomation.Utilities
{
    public class AccessUtilities
    {
        public static void StripPasswordFromMDB(string currentPassword, string mdbFilePath)
        {
            var accessBuilder = new OleDbConnectionStringBuilder
            {
                Provider = "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0",
                DataSource = mdbFilePath
            };

            using (var conn = new OleDbConnection(accessBuilder.ConnectionString))
            {
                try
                {
                    conn.Open();

                    return;
                }
                catch
                {
                    // Do nothing, just let it fall through to try with password and exclusive open.
                }
            }

            accessBuilder["Jet OLEDB:Database Password"] = currentPassword;
            accessBuilder["Mode"] = "Share Exclusive";

            using (var conn = new OleDbConnection(accessBuilder.ConnectionString))
            {
                if (ConnectionState.Open != conn.State)
                {
                    conn.Open(); // If it fails here, likely due to an actual bad password.
                }

                using (
                    var oleDbCommand =
                        new OleDbCommand(string.Format("ALTER DATABASE PASSWORD NULL [{0}]", currentPassword), conn))
                {
                    oleDbCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

The way to change the password programmatically is detailed here.

Essentially, one needs to do the following:

1. Open a connection to the database using ADO.NET

2. Execute an alter statement on the database setting it's password to NULL as so:

   ALTER DATABASE PASSWORD [Your Password] NULL;

3. Dispose the connection

Sample code taken from the source:

Private Function CreateDBPassword(ByVal Password As String, _
    ByVal Path As String) As Boolean
Dim objConn as ADODB.Connection
Dim strAlterPassword as String
On Error GoTo CreateDBPassword_Err
' Create the SQL string to initialize a database password.
strAlterPassword = "ALTER DATABASE PASSWORD [Your Password] NULL;"

' Open the unsecured database.
Set objConn = New ADODB.Connection
With objConn
    .Mode = adModeShareExclusive
    .Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data " & _
        "Source=[Your Path];" 

 ' Execute the SQL statement to secure the database.
 .Execute (strAlterPassword)
End With

' Clean up objects.
objConn.Close
Set objConn = Nothing

' Return true if successful.
CreateDBPassword = True

CreateDBPassword_Err:
Msgbox Err.Number & ":" & Err.Description
CreateDBPassword = False 
End Function